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The Christmas Story:

An overview of views by conservative Christians,
CalamitiesOfNature.com and liberal Christians.

Essentially all conservative theologians believe in the inspiration of the Bible authors and the inerrancy of the Bible itself. This leads them to regard the birth stories in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke to
be absolutely accurate in every detail. The Gospels of Mark and John, and the various
epistles by Paul and other authors do not refer to Jesus' birth as being unusual in any
way. But it is not necessary that most writers of the Christian Scriptures (New Testament)
mention the virgin birth and other special events at Jesus birth. The fact that Matthew
and Luke did so is sufficient proof. One need only read the early chapters of these two
gospels to obtain an accurate account of the events surrounding Jesus' birth. We
won't provide a further analysis here, because the story in Matthew 1:1 to 2:12
and Luke 1:5 to 2:20 are easily accessible and easy to understand. More details.

"What Christmas is all about" as interpreted by CalamitiesOfNature.com:

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Among many liberal theologians, many (if not most) components of the stories should be
regarded as myth. There are many elements in the Gospels relating to Jesus' birth which
they believe did not happen. Common beliefs among religious liberals are:

Gospel of Q: This gospel was written circa 50 CE, probably before any of the books that became
the Christian Scirptures (New Testament). Although it has been lost,
theologians have been able to reconstruct its text. It does not mention Jesus'
birth as being in any way special. One can assume that the Christians at the time had not
yet developed a birth myth.

Writings of Paul: These were probably written a few years after the
Gospel of Q, and pre-dated the remaining gospels by up to 5 decades. He makes reference to
Jesus' birth in two passages. In both cases, the virgin birth and the miracles associated with the birth
were not mentioned. Jesus was presented as having a normal birth:

Galatians 4:4: "But when the time had fully come, God sent
forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law."

Romans 1:3: "...Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the
seed of David according to the flesh."

Mark: This gospel was written by an unknown author circa 70 CE. He
apparently knew nothing about miraculous events associated with Jesus' birth, and thus did
not record any in his writings. If he were aware of them, he certainly would have
mentioned them.

Matthew: This was written by another unknown author, probably a Jew who
lived remote from Palestine. He wrote the Gospel circa 80 CE, presumably after some of the
early Christian movements had invented miraculous traditions associated with Jesus' birth.
Most of the elements associated with this myth appear to have never happened:

Matthew 1:1: The author traces Jesus' genealogy from Abraham. He lists
Jacob as being Jesus' grandfather. This conflicts with Luke, who lists Eli. Jesus' line is
traced through Solomon, son of David. Luke traces the Messianic line through Nathan, son
of David. The author lists 28 generations between David and Jesus; Luke says it was 41.

Matthew 1:18: The virgin conception of Jesus
by Mary is an obvious myth. The Gospel of Q does not mention it.
St. Paul not only does not mention it, but implies that Jesus' birth was normal. The
author of the Gospel probably invented the virgin birth so that the story of Jesus' could
compete with the magical conception of many heroes and gods in surrounding Pagan
religions: e.g. Horus (circa 1550 BCE), Zoroaster (1000 - 1500 BCE?), Krishna (circa 1200
BCE), Indra (circa 750 BCE), Buddha (circa 600 BCE), Mithra (circa 500 BCE), Quirrnus
(circa 550 BCE), Attis (circa 200 BCE), Adonis (born in Bethlehem many centuries before
Jesus).

Matthew 1:22: The author cites a passage in an ancient Greek
translation of Isaiah. The translation from the original Hebrew was an error: it substituted "virgin"
for "young woman." Matthew and Luke probably felt compelled to go along
with the expectation that Jesus' mother was a virgin.

Matthew 2:1: The story of the Magi coming to Palestine to give homage
to the King of the Jews appears to have been freely adapted from the story of Mithra's birth. He
was mythical Persian savior, also allegedly born of a virgin in a cave on DEC-25, who was worshiped
many centuries before Jesus' birth.

Matthew 2:7: Herod inquired as to the exact time that the star
appeared. According to Matthew 2:16, this was to learn exactly when Jesus was born, so
that he could have all of the male children close to that age in the Bethlehem area
murdered. Since he later ordered all of the children under 2 years of age slaughtered,
Jesus must have been living with his parents in Bethlehem for many months by the time that
the Magi arrived - perhaps at least a year. If Jesus had been just born, then Herod would
have ordered only newborn infants killed. This conflicts with Luke 2:39 which states that
when Mary was ritually purified 40 days after the birth, that the family returned to
Nazareth immediately afterwards. It also conflicts with the archeologial record which conclusively shows that Bethlehem was deserted during the 1st century BCE and 1st century CE.

Matthew 2:9: The story element which has the Magi following a star is
obvious mythical. Any star or super-nova or comet or alignment of planets would obviously
be tens or hundreds of millions of miles away from earth. In order to serve as a marker
for the house in Bethlehem where Jesus was, it would have to be only a few hundred feet
above the town.

Matthew 2:11: The author presents Joseph and Mary as being residents of
Bethlehem, living in a house. This conflicts with Luke's account which describes Jesus'
parents as residents of Nazareth and only temporary visitors to Bethlehem.

Matthew 2:13: The author describes the family fleeing to Egypt. No
record of this is seen in Luke. It was apparently added to the gospel in order to match
the prophecy in Hosea 11:1 that the Messiah must come out of Egypt.

Matthew 2:16: Herod's extermination order is certainly a myth, as
described above.

Matthew 2:23: Joseph and Mary bypassed Judea and settled in Nazareth.
The prophecy that "He will be called a Nazarene" does not exist in the
Hebrew Scriptures.

Luke: This gospel was written by an unknown author circa 90 CE. He was
probably the only writer in the Christian Scriptures who was not born a Jew. Originally,
it was believed that the author of Luke and Acts was a physician. But recent analysis of
the text indicates that his medical knowledge was typical of any educated person of his
era. Most of the Christmas story that we see portrayed in plays and pageants is most often taken
from this gospel. Matthew's mention of the Magi is then tacked onto the end. Some
suspicious elements from Luke's birth story are:

Luke 1:26: The description of the virgin conception is, as described
above, an attempt to make a mistranslated prophecy from the Hebrew Scriptures come true.
Alternatively the author might have incorporated a birth tradition invented by his religious
group in order to make Jesus appear to be a great hero or god, like those of the
surrounding religions in the Mediterranean.

Luke 2:1: The census never happened.

Luke 2:2: Even if a census did occur at the time of Jesus' birth, the
people would not have been required to return to their ancestral home. That would be a
totally impractical arrangement. If it happened this way, all work
throughout the Roman Empire would stop. Some people would have had to
travel for months to return to their ancestral home. The
transportation infrastructure could not possibly have handled the
flood of travelers.

Luke 2:5: Joseph would not have taken Mary with him, even if he had to
go to Bethlehem to register. Only men were enumerated or taxed, so there was no necessity for her to
accompany Joseph. Mary's pregnancy was in its 9th month at the time. She would not have
been in a condition to travel.

Luke 2:8: The author seems to have invented the shepherds; the latter
do not appear in Matthew.

Luke 2:39: The author describes Joseph and Mary as being residents of
Nazareth. This is probably true, but conflicts with Matthew's story which has them living
in Bethlehem, and only deciding to go to Nazareth because it would be too dangerous to
remain in Judea.

Luke 2:39: Luke describes them as going directly from Bethlehem to
Nazareth. This conflicts with Matthew's account which has them fleeing to Egypt and only
returning after Herod died. At least one of these accounts must be wrong.

John: This gospel was written by one or more authors circa 100 CE. The
writers would have certainly been aware of the virgin birth stories of Matthew and Luke. But they
seem to have rejected the stories as myths, and not worthy of being incorporated into
their gospel.

After removing all of the fantasy and myth from the birth stories, we are left with the
following probable facts: "Jeshua was born to Mary and Joseph, in Nazareth in the
fall circa 4 BCE." But it would be a mistake to reject all of the other events
associated with the Christmas season, just because they never happened. We can still enjoy
the stories as beautiful myths and legends, which have inspired Christians for centuries.

The following information sources were used to prepare and update the above
essay. The hyperlinks are not necessarily still active today.

Tony Piro, "What Christmas is all about," Calamities of Nature, 2010-DEC-22, atL http://www.calamitiesofnature.com/ Used by permission. The positive comments of readers are well worth reading. So are the rest of his comic strips.